Romans Read Percy Jackson
by Slytherin28
Summary: Roman demigods from Camp Jupiter read moments from throughout the Percy Jackson Series
1. Chapter I

It had been almost four months since the fall of Saturn, the death toll had been high and the only thing the camp needed was strong leaders. Obviously however, Fortuna wasn't on our side – I knew we should have worshipped her more than one feast a year. Jason, our Praetor Son of Jupiter (our camp's namesake), was missing. My name is Reyna – the other Praetor. We were about the begin the war games which was probably the only thing the camp looked forward to.

"Centurions, you and your troops have one hour for dinner. Then we will meet on the field of Mars, the First and Second cohorts will defend. The Third, Fourth and Fifth Cohorts will attack. Good Fortune." I said to the crowd of Roman Warriors before me and the cheered at the mention of the games.

I was making my way through camp towards the mess hall with Argentum and Aurum when Octavian called my name. I waited for him to catch up before walking in sync towards the mess hall. "I've had a message form the Auguries"

"Do go on…" I said trailing my voice.

"I was reading the auguries … and well … I found this book inside it" He said handing me a book titled 'Percy Jackson'. "and there was a note." I snatched the note from his hand and began to read.

"Take these to the mess hall, this is something the whole camp must hear." I marched off towards the hall with my dogs in tow.

"Romans, I have an announcement" I exclaimed in front the entire Twelfth Legion, they quietened immediately at the sound of my voice. "Octavian has received word from the gods."

"B-but they've been silent for ages. Why answer now?" Mike Kahale, centurion of the First Cohort asked.

"I'm not quite sure. But they left a note. It says quite simply 'read it, you may find out about some interesting people'"

"How do we know that's from the gods?" Dakota asked

"We don't" I answered

"It's quite obvious that it is though" A voice from the shadows said, a few people jumped as they are not used to the Son of Pluto appearing mysteriously, and from the corner of the room came Nico Di Angelo (Ambassador of Pluto), "gods are like that. Mysterious and what-not"

"The book doesn't seem to have one set storyline; every chapter seems different … or at least I think it is?" I guessed "Let's begin, Chapter 1: I Accidently Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher"

"How do you do that accidently?" A member of the first cohort asked, she didn't get an answer.

 **Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"What's wrong with being a half-blood?" Frank Zhang (New member of the Fifth Cohort) asked

"I bet their graecus" Octavian sneered

 **If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

 **Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

 **If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

 **But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

 **Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"He's quite funny" Hank, a son of Apollo said and a few people laughed with him

 **My name is Percy Jackson.**

At the sound of the name, Nico gasped, quite loudly too. I turned to him, "Do you know this Percy Jackson, Nico?" I asked obtaining the attention of the legion.

"I've heard of him. I think he's in the Underworld now like. I think he's in Elysium." He answered. I almost felt sorry for this Jackson child, obviously, he didn't get trained enough. Glancing around you could see the sympathetic looks on the legion's faces.

 **I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

 **Am I a troubled kid?**

 **Yeah. You could say that.**

 **I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan-twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

 **I know-it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

 **But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

 **Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

 **I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

 **Boy, was I wrong.**

"Obviously, someone didn't pray to Fortuna." Teased Dakota who was already drunk on over-sugared Cool Aid.

 **See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that . . . Well, you get the idea.**

"He may be dead but this kid is a genius" A son of Mercury exclaimed earning him a few laughs from his fellow cohort members.

 **This trip, I was determined to be good.**

 **All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

 **Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from P.E. for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

 **Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death-by-in-school-suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

 **"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

 **Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"He may like peanut butter but probably not in his hair" Gwen a daughter of Venus said, trust her to focus on the guy's hair.

 **He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

 **"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

 **"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

 **Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

 **Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

 **He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

 **It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

 **He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

 **Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

 **From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

 **One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me real serious and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Do you think she's a monster?" a member of the fifth cohort said, I replied with a look that said 'obviously'.

 **Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

"Stupid Graecus" some the people in the legion murmured

 **Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

 **It came out louder than I meant it to.**

 **The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

 **"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

 **My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

 **Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

 **I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Kronus is Saturn right?" Leila said. No one answered her, I mean we just had a war against him in August, we may not have seen Kronus but she should know that.

 **"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because . . ."**

 **"Well . . ." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

 **"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

 **"Titan," I corrected myself. "And . . . he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

 **"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

 **"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

 **Some snickers from the group.**

 **Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

 **"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

 **"Busted," Grover muttered.**

 **"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

 **At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

 **I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

 **"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

 **The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses.**

 **Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

 **I knew that was coming.**

"You should never predict anything unless you're an Augur" Octavian said shaking his head.

 **I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

 **Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go-intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

 **"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

 **"About the titans?"**

 **"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

" **Oh."**

 **"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

 **I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

 **I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

 **I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

 **He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

 **The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

 **Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"I wonder what has upset Lord Jupiter?" A worried Fourth Cohort member said

 **Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Luncheables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something out of a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

 **Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

 **"Detention?" Grover asked.**

 **"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean - I'm not a genius."**

 **Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

 **I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

 **I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"He's a wee mommy's boy!" Laughed some Second Cohort Members

 **Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

 **I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

 **"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

 **I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

 **I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

 **Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

 **Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

" **-the water-"**

 **"-like it grabbed her-"**

"Is he a son of Neptune?"

"We haven't had children of Neptune in forever"

"Graecus"

 **I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

 **As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

 **"Now, honey-"**

 **"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

 **That wasn't the right thing to say.**

 **"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

 **"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

 **I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

 **She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

 **"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

 **"But-"**

 **"You-will-stay-here."**

 **Grover looked at me desperately.**

 **"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

 **"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

 **Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

 **I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

For some reason, Nico shivered involuntarily at the mention of the stare. I think I was the only one who noticed however. DO you think he's been on the receiving end of that look in the underworld?

 **I then turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

 **How'd she get there so fast?**

 **I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

 **I wasn't so sure.**

 **I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

 **Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

 **I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

 **Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

 **But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

 **I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

 **Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

 **Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

 **Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it . . .**

 **"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

 **I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

 **She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

 **The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

 **She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

 **I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

 **Thunder shook the building.**

 **"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

 **I didn't know what she was talking about.**

 **All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Again this kid is brilliant, here Nico do you think I can meet him?" the same Roman from last time asked, Nico didn't answer.

 **"Well?" she demanded.**

 **"Ma'am, I don't . . ."**

 **"Your time is up," she hissed, her eyes glowing like barbecue coals." Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Nico took a huge gasp, one that even the people at the back of the mess hall could here.

"Is that a Dirae?" One asked

"What's it doing there?"

 **Then things got even stranger.**

 **Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

 **"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

 **Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

 **With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

 **Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

 **My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

 **She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

 **And she flew straight at me.**

 **Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

 **The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

 **Mrs. Dodds was a sandcastle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

 **I was alone.**

 **There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

 **Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

 **My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

 **Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Poor guy, the mist must really mess with him" I sympathised

 **I went back outside.**

 **It had started to rain.**

 **Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who is Mrs Kerr, I thought it was Mrs Dodds?" one said

"You and everyone else" Said another

 **I said, "Who?"**

 **"Our teacher. Duh!"**

 **I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

 **She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

 **I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

 **He said, "Who?"**

 **But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

 **"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

 **Thunder boomed overhead.**

 **I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

 **I went over to him.**

 **He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

 **I handed it over. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

 **"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

 **He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

 **"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

 **He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**


	2. Chapter II

"Romans," I began, "That last chapter was exciting but another has just appeared. It seems that when we finish reading one a new one appears."

"What's the next chapter called?" asked Hazel

"We visit a Garden Gnome Emporium" I responded

 **In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.**

"That's one way to put it" Dakota laughed while drinking his red kool aid, which left a red stain around his mouth.

 **So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.**

 **Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."**

 **I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."**

"Obviously Graecus, why would they run from a fight?"

 **"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."**

"They must not have prayed to Fortuna"

"Have we even discovered what gods they are children of?" asked a daughter of Ceres

"Not yet, though I think that Percy kid is a son of Neptune" answered Michael Kahale

 **"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"**

 **"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"**

 **"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."**

 **"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."**

 **"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.**

 **Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."**

 **We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.**

 **After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."**

 **"We're a team, right?"**

"That's really adorable" Squealed an overly excited child of Venus. However, she received odd looks as it was very unroman-like to 'squeal'.

 **She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."**

 **The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.**

 **"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.**

"That's almost as long as Praetor Jason" Hazel said in awe

 **"No ... only short field trips. My dad-"**

 **"The history professor."**

 **"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."**

 **If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.**

 **"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.**

 **"You think so?"**

 **"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."**

"And me" agreed the majority of the Legion except for Octavian who was still muttering about 'Graecus'.

 **I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.**

 **"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you ... Something funny back on the bus ..."**

 **Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.**

"I would hope not … there is no need to be cruel to animals" Gwen sighed

 **"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"**

Everyone had a laugh at that and judging by their faces you could tell they liked this 'Percy' kid. 'Too bad he's dead.' Thought Reyna.

 **He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.**

 **Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.**

 **Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.**

"I wonder what powers he does have?"

"Is he actually a Son of Neptune?"

 **After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miser-able for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.**

"We don't even eat that healthy!" I exclaimed

"Does it matter" Mike from the First Cohort shouted, "Let's not change that"

 **We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.**

 **It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamin-gos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, sur-rounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.**

 **To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.**

"What does that mean?" asked Bobby

"Obviously if he's anything like us then he has dyslexia so it's obviously affecting them"

 **"What the heck does that say?" I asked.**

 **"I don't know," Annabeth said.**

 **She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.**

 **Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."**

"Does he not have dyslexia?" Frank said in hope that he wouldn't be the only demigod without dyslexia.

"Maybe he's learnt to cope with it?" Lois, a member of the Third Cohort and daughter of Vulcan, replied. You could see clearly by Frank's face that he was disappointed.

 **Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and wav-ing, as if they were about to get their picture taken.**

 **I crossed the street, following the smell of the ham-burgers.**

"I would love a hamburger right now" Marcus said

 **"Hey ..." Grover warned.**

 **"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."**

 **"Snack bar," I said wistfully.**

 **"Snack bar," she agreed.**

 **"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."**

 **We ignored him.**

"I would've trusted Grovers' advice" I said

"Why?" someone said (I couldn't see who had spoken)

"He obviously knows what he's doing" I answered

 **The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.**

 **"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"**

 **We stopped at the warehouse door.**

 **"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."**

"Can demigods smell monsters?" Bobby asked

"No … their graecus!" Octavian shouted

 **"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"**

 **"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."**

 **"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.**

 **"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These stat-ues are ... looking at me."**

 **Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman-at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.**

 **Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"**

 **"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say.**

 **"We're orphans," I said.**

"He could have at least come up with a better lie" Bobby said, "Definitely not a son of Mercury"

 **"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"**

 **"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"**

"Straight to the point I guess"

"Leave them alone. They lost all their food so they are probably really hungry" I sympathized

"Are you favouring the graecus?" Octavian sneered

"We don't know if they're graecus or not. They could be loners" I replied

 **"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."**

 **We thanked her and went inside.**

 **Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"**

 **"Always have a strategy, right?"**

 **"Your head is full of kelp."**

 **The warehouse was filled with more statues-people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits**

 **and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food. Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the den-tist's chair-it made everything else go away. I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.**

"That's never a good sign" Gwen moaned

"Grover must have been right when he said he smelled a monster" Nico said with a knowing glint in his eye.

"You don't talk much, do you Nico?" Leila said and Nico shrugged.

 **All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the**

 **warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese**

 **dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.**

 **"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.**

 **"Awesome," I said.**

 **"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."**

 **Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."**

"That is the cue to leave!" Hank shouted

"They can't hear you" Bobby told him

 **"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.**

 **Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done some-thing wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.**

 **"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Only later did I wonder**

 **how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never intro-duced ourselves.**

 **Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries. I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**

"Breathing is good" Zoe said (Fifth Cohort member)

 **Annabeth slurped her shake.**

 **Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**

 **"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**

 **I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**

 **"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**

 **"I take vitamins. For my ears."**

"Is he lying?" Zach, son of Venus and member of the Second Cohort, asked

"I'm not totally sure" Gwen said

 **"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**

 **Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head-dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, hav-ing someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**

 **"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**

 **"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**

 **"A lot of business on this road?"**

 **"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**

 **My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues.**

"That's quite suspicious, don't you think?" someone said but it went unanswered, it seemed everyone else was too engrossed with the book to respond.

 **But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**

 **"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**

 **"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**

 **"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company."**

"Is that who I think it is?" asked a wary Fifth Cohort Member

 **The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**

 **Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**

 **"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**

"Faded? Hmm…. Sounds familiar" I said and everyone in the mess hall sharing a knowing but worried look. It sounded exactly what happened to monsters. The Gorgon sisters specifically.

 **I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**

 **"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**

 **She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**

"He's eating paper?" Bobby said astonished

"Hey, I do that sometimes!" Don the Faun said

"Is he a faun? Grover I mean" Leila said

 **"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**

 **She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.**

 **"We really should go."**

 **"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**

 **I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**

 **"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**

 **"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**

 **"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."**

 **Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy-"**

 **"Sure we can," I said. I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**

"Oh my gods Percy just listen to Annabeth!" Nico erupted which surprised a lot of people since he usually just kept to himself or Hazel. No one said anything but you could see the looks of shock in their eyes.

 **"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**

 **I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**

 **Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gen-tlemen on either side."**

 **"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**

 **"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**

 **"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**

 **Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**

 **Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle**

 **Ferdinand."**

 **"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**

 **She still had no camera in her hands.**

 **"Percy-" Annabeth said.**

 **Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**

 **"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."**

 **"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**

 **"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**

 **"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.**

 **"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished.**

"Is that an invisible hat? I want one of those! Imagine using that in the war games!" A son of Mars said

That would be cool … so many ways to attack people" A daughter of Mars from the Second Cohort said.

 **Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench. I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet. I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**

 **Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**

 **I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**

 **More rasping-the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**

"It's Medusa!" Gwen said, "Just their luck"

"Should've prayed to Fortuna" I muttered

 **"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying**

 **sneakers.**

"First an invisible hat now flying sneakers! Why don't we get cool things like this?" Marcus moaned

 **I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**

 **"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."**

 **I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens- a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**

 **Aunty Em.**

 **Aunty "M."**

 **How could I have been so stupid?**

"Is he only discovering this now?"

"He obviously is a loner, they probably didn't have any monster lessons" Leila reasoned

 **Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?**

 **But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was**

 **attacked by my namesake, Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**

 **"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster.**

"Minerva" Octavian sneered

 **Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**

"Look he said a Graecus name. They are graecus!" Octavian roared and multiple romans joined him.

 **"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, some-where in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"**

 **"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."**

"Annabeth's a daughter of Minerva. I thought Minerva was a virgin goddess?" Jacob, son of Janus said

"She is" I responded equally confused as to how Annabeth was alive.

 **"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.**

 **"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of theOlympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**

 **"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive.**

 **Grover yelled, "Duck!"**

 **I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**

"He must be a Faun"

"Definitely. No demigod's ears and nose are that good"

 **"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**

 **That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me. I dove to one side.**

 **Thwack!**

 **At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**

 **"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**

"What's a Satyr?" Bobby asked

"It was what the Graecus called Fauns" Octavian replied snarkily, "More reason to believe these are Graecus"

 **"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**

 **I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**

 **Ker-whack!**

 **"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spit-ting.**

 **Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"**

 **I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"**

 **Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."**

 **"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**

 **"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You-you've got a chance."**

 **"What? I can't-"**

 **"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**

 **She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**

"That's so Heart-breaking" Gwen said

 **Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of-"**

"What did she just say?" James asked, he was a centurion of the Second Cohort.

 **"Would you speak English?"**

 **"I am!" She tossed me the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."**

 **"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**

 **"Roooaaarrr!"**

 **"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**

 **"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."**

 **I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**

 **I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**

 **I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**

 **Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**

 **Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**

 **I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**

 **But she let me approach-twenty feet, ten feet.**

 **I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.**

 **"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**

 **I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass-the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**

 **From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"**

 **Medusa cackled. "Too late."**

 **She lunged at me with her talons.**

 **I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern-the sound of a monster disintegrating.**

"Woah! Go Percy!" Bobby and Leila cheered though they seemed to be the only ones. However, Nico did have a faint smile of his face.

 **Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**

 **"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**

"Indeed" Astor a son of Venus said

 **Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said,**

 **"Don't move."**

 **Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**

 **"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.**

 **"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't ... why didn't the head evaporate?"**

"He is so un-knowledgeable about the demigod world" Hazel said

"No wonder he's dead" Dakota said

 **"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**

 **Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**

 **"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**

 **He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."**

 **He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the ware-house.**

 **We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head.**

 **We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**

 **Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**

 **Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actu-ally. Don't you remember? Medusa was**

 **Poseidon's girl-friend."**

"Why are they using Graecus terms?" Hank asked

"Maybe they were taught them that way at school?" I said

"They are Graecus! Stop defending them, what if there is more of them! We should be preparing for battle" Octavian cried

" **They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."**

 **My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."**

 **Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**

 **"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**

 **"You're insufferable."**

 **"You're-"**

 **"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"**

 **I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**

 **I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**

 **What had Medusa said?**

 **Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.**

"He probably died on Saturn's side in the war if that's what his thought pattern is like?" Gwen said

 **I got up. "I'll be back."**

 **"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you-"**

 **I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden.**

"Hey Nico, have you seen these statues?" Bobby asked jokingly

"I tend not to venture into Persephone's garden … not after last time" He said

"What happened?" Marcus asked

"Nothing special" He muttered in retaliation

 **According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West**

 **Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**

"Dead on Arrival. Punny" Frank laughed silently, Hazel joined him soon afterwards

 **In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes**

"What are drachmas?" Leila questioned

"Greek version of Denarii" Nico answered

"How'd you know? You're a Graecus aren't you?" Octavian accused

"No. When I'm in the underworld, I would work sometimes for Charon on the ferries. The amount of people who try to bribe you into getting into the underworld quicker is insane" He replied

 **Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the**

 **office until I found the right-size box.**

 **I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**

 **The Gods**

 **Mount Olympus**

 **600th Floor,**

 **Empire State Building**

 **New York, NY**

 **With best wishes,**

 **PERCY JACKSON**

"Does he have a death wish?" Bobby asked

"I didn't know Mount Olympus was in New York, much less above the Empire State Building" Octavian wondered aloud.

"What do you say Reyna. Camp Trip?" Bobby said. The look I gave them said it all.

 **"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**

 **I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash**

 **register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!**

 **"I am impertinent," I said.**

 **I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**

 **She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."**

"And that is the end of that chapter" I said putting the book down. "Maybe we should get some food". Everyone mumbled in agreement and started to eat their food.


	3. Chapter III

**Quick wee note. From reading a few of the reviews, I feel like some of you are a bit confused. I have read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series and I have half way through Mark of Athena. I am semi-new to the PJO Universe.**

 **Also, this book is not going to be a recount of the whole books … it's just going to be the romans reading a selection of books. Which means they won't be reading all of The Lightning Thief. Each chapter will be a totally different chapter. It will go in chronological order. E.g. I'm not going to do the last chapter of Sea of Monsters then go back and let them read about the first capture the flag.**

 **Additionally, Percy is not actually dead … Nico just made that up so that they wouldn't suspect him of being Greek.**

 **Please note that my writing is not perfect, I tend to type really fast and while I do have spell check and the like I rarely use then so if you spot a mistake please comment about it and I will fix it. I realised a mistake in the first chapter I wrote 'The Lost Hero' then continued to write the first chapter of The Lightning Thief when someone commented about it. I also tend not the proof read my work (You now realise my English Teacher hates me).**

 **Last point: ALL CHAPTERS ARE IN REYNA PERSPECTIVE UNTIL OVERWISE STATED**

The entire mess hall was in an up-roar due to a) It was dinner time and b) I just announced that the war games would be cancelled for the night in order to read the book. To put it simply: They were not happy.

"Romans! Control yourself!" I all but shouted at them. They quietened at my stare that I was giving them. "Calm down now or war games will be cancelled for the next week and instead we will be doing conditioning," They sat down closer to me so that they could hear the reading. "Now, let's read the next chapter"

I turned over the page to discover it wasn't a chapter but a letter, I let out a shocked but quiet gasp. "What is it Praetor?" Hazel asked

"It's another letter" I replied

"Well what does it say?" Octavian asked impatiently before adding "Praetor"

"It says, 'We're going to skip a year and now Percy and Annabeth are on a different quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece'"

"That sounds so exciting!" Leila squealed

"And dangerous" Marcus added

"Let's read. This chapter is called 'We check into C.C. Spa and Resort" I shocked myself when I said this as this was where I lived before arriving at Camp Jupiter.

 **I woke up in a rowboat with a makeshift sail stitched of gray uniform fabric. Annabeth sat next to me, tacking into the wind.**

"Where are they?" A confused camper asked

"Figure it out. They are on a rowboat. Obviously at sea" an obnoxious Third Cohort member grumbled

 **I tried to sit up and immediately felt woozy.**

" **Rest," she said. "You're going to need it."**

" **Tyson … ?"**

 **She shook her head. "Percy, I'm really sorry."**

 **We were silent while the waves tossed us up and down.**

" **He may have survived," she said halfheartedly. "I mean, fire can't kill him."**

"Is he a Faun too?" Bobby asked

"Fauns aren't immune to fire" I replied

 **I nodded, but I had no reason to feel hopeful. I'd seen that explosion rip through solid iron. If Tyson had been down in the boiler room, there was no way he could've lived.**

 **He'd given his life for us, and all I could think about were the times I'd felt embarrassed by him and had denied that the two of us were related.**

 **Waves lapped at the boat. Annabeth showed me some things she'd salvaged from the wreckage—Hermes's thermos (now empty), a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia, a couple of sailors' shirts, and a bottle of Dr Pepper. She'd fished me out of the water and found my knapsack, bitten in half by Scylla's teeth. Most of my stuff had floated away, but I still had Hermes's bottle of multivitamins, and of course I had Riptide. The ballpoint pen always appeared back in my pocket no matter where I lost it.**

"That's handy" Marcus said

"Especially in battle" agreed Hank

 **We sailed for hours. Now that we were in the Sea of Monsters,**

"Are they in Mare-Nostrum?" a younger camper asked warily

"I don't think Graecus have a Mare-Nostrum" Gwen answered, "I think I read somewhere that that is what people call the Bermuda Triangle"

 **the water glittered a more brilliant green, like Hydra acid. The wind smelled fresh and salty, but it carried a strange metallic scent, too—as if a thunderstorm were coming. Or something even more dangerous. I knew what direction we needed to go. I knew we were exactly one hundred thirteen nautical miles west by northwest of our destination. But that didn't make me feel any less lost.**

"Can all Neptune do that? I mean find sea bearings?" Jacob asked

"I would assume so but we have no Neptune children so I'm not sure" I replied

 **No matter which way we turned, the sun seemed to shine straight into my eyes. We took turns sipping from the Dr Pepper, shading ourselves with the sail as best we could. And we talked about my latest dream of Grover.**

 **By Annabeth's estimate, we had less than twenty-four hours to find Grover, assuming my dream was accurate, and assuming the Cyclops Polyphemus didn't change his mind and try to marry Grover earlier.**

" **Yeah," I said bitterly. "You can never trust a Cyclops."**

 **Annabeth stared across the water. "I'm sorry, Percy. I was wrong about Tyson, okay? I wish I could tell him that."**

 **I tried to stay mad at her, but it wasn't easy. We'd been through a lot together. She'd saved my life plenty of times. It was stupid of me to resent her.**

"That the last thing you want to happen on a quest" I said

 **I looked down at our measly possessions—the empty wind thermos, the bottle of multivitamins. I thought about Luke's look of rage when I'd tried to talk to him about his dad.**

" **Annabeth, what's Chiron's prophecy?"**

 **She pursed her lips. "Percy, I shouldn't—"**

" **I know Chiron promised the gods he wouldn't tell me. But you didn't promise, did you?"**

" **Knowledge isn't always good for you."**

" **Your mom is the wisdom goddess!"**

" **I know! But every time heroes learn the future, they try to change it, and it never works."**

" **The gods are worried about something I'll do when I get older," I guessed. "Something when I turn sixteen."**

"Is he talking about that Prophecy?" Lois asked

"Must be. That's the only one I know about a Sixteen year old deciding something" Octavian grumbled

 **Annabeth twisted her Yankees cap in her hands. "Percy, I don't know the full prophecy, but it warns about a half-blood child of the Big Three—the next one who lives to the age of sixteen. That's the real reason Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades swore a pact after World War II not to have any more kids. The next child of the Big Three who reaches sixteen will be a dangerous weapon."**

"That obviously didn't turn out well" Bobby laughed

"What do you mean?" Frank asked confused, he was still getting used to the swing of things here at camp.

"Jason's a son of Jupiter" Hazel told him

" **Why?"**

" **Because that hero will decide the fate of Olympus. He or she will make a decision that either saves the Age of the Gods, or destroys it."**

 **I let that sink in. I don't get seasick, but suddenly I felt ill. "That's why Kronos didn't kill me last summer."**

"Has he already met Saturn and lived to tell the tale?" Marcus inquired

"Evidently he must have prayed to Fortuna" Leila said

 **She nodded. "You could be very useful to him. If he can get you on his side, the gods will be in serious trouble."**

" **But if it's me in the prophecy—"**

" **We'll only know that if you survive three more years. That can be a long time for a half-blood."**

"It is really?" Zoe asked, "We have demigods who have children and Legacies"

"Must be" I said

" **When Chiron first learned about Thalia, he assumed she was the one in the prophecy."**

"Who is Thalia now?" Zack asked

"Obviously, a child of the Jupiter, Neptune or Pluto, in their Graecus forms of course" I answered, it seemed like I was the one with all the answers. However, I suppose you have to be to be Praetor.

" **That's why he was so desperate to get her safely to camp. Then she went down fighting and got turned into a pine tree and none of us knew what to think. Until you came along."**

"Oh she's dead" Zoe said sadly

"Are you sympathizing with Graecus?" Octavian sneered angrily, Zoe shook her swiftly.

"Did Annabeth just say she was turned into a tree?" Bobby said

I reread the line and turned to Bobby before saying, "I think she just did"

 **On our port side, a spiky green dorsal fin about fifteen feet long curled out of the water and disappeared.**

" **This kid in the prophecy … he or she couldn't be like, a Cyclops?" I asked. "The Big Three have lots of monster children."**

 **Annabeth shook her head. "The Oracle said 'half-blood.' That always means half-human, half-god. There's really nobody alive who it could be, except you."**

" **Then why do the gods even let me live? It would be safer to kill me."**

" **You're right."**

" **Thanks a lot."**

" **Percy, I don't know. I guess some of the gods would like to kill you, but they're probably afraid of offending Poseidon. Other gods … maybe they're still watching you, trying to decide what kind of hero you're going be. You could be a weapon for their survival, after all. The real question is … what will you do in three years? What decision will you make?"**

"If he's dead either he's a really bad fighter, obviously due to the lack of proper training, or he choose the wrong side, in which case he is a traitor" Octavian jeered

" **Did the prophecy give any hints?"**

 **Annabeth hesitated.**

 **Maybe she would've told me more, but just then a seagull swooped down out of nowhere and landed on our makeshift mast. Annabeth looked startled as the bird dropped a small cluster of leaves into her lap.**

" **Land," she said. "There's land nearby!"**

 **I sat up. Sure enough, there was a line of blue and brown in the distance. Another minute and I could make out an island with a small mountain in the center, a dazzling white collection of buildings, a beach dotted with palm trees, and a harbor filled with a strange assortment of boats.**

'That sounds oddly familiar' I thought

 **The current was pulling our rowboat toward what looked like a tropical paradise.**

" **Welcome!" said the lady with the clipboard.**

 **She looked like a flight attendant—blue business suit, perfect makeup, hair pulled back in a ponytail. She shook our hands as we stepped onto the dock. With the dazzling smile she gave us, you would've thought we'd just gotten off the Princess Andromeda rather than a banged-up rowboat.**

 **Then again, our rowboat wasn't the weirdest ship in port. Along with a bunch of pleasure yachts, there was a U.S. Navy submarine, several dugout canoes, and an old-fashioned three-masted sailing ship. There was a helipad with a "Channel Five Fort Lauderdale" helicopter on it, and a short runway with a Learjet and a propeller plane that looked like a World War II fighter. Maybe they were replicas for tourists to look at or something.**

" **Is this your first time with us?" the clipboard lady inquired.**

"Where are they?" Jenny (Fourth Cohort) asked

"Nowhere good" I said gravely

 **Annabeth and I exchanged looks. Annabeth said, "Umm …"**

" **First—time—at—spa," the lady said as she wrote on her clipboard. "Let's see …"**

 **She looked us up and down critically. "Mmm. An herbal wrap to start for the young lady. And of course, a complete makeover for the young gentleman."**

" **A what?" I asked.**

 **She was too busy jotting down notes to answer.**

" **Right!" She said with a breezy smile. "Well, I'm sure C.C. will want to speak with you personally before the luau. Come, please."**

 **Now here's the thing. Annabeth and I were used to traps, and usually those traps looked good at first. So I expected the clipboard lady to turn into a snake or a demon, or something, any minute. But on the other hand, we'd been floating in a rowboat for most of the day. I was hot, tired, and hungry, and when this lady mentioned a luau, my stomach sat up on its hind legs and begged like a dog.**

"Can we have a Luau after this" Bobby asked

"No. You'll have to wait for the Fortuna Feast" I replied

" **I guess it couldn't hurt," Annabeth muttered.**

 **Of course it could, but we followed the lady anyway. I kept my hands in my pockets where I'd stashed my only magic defenses—Hermes's multivitamins and Riptide— but the farther we wandered into the resort, the more I forgot about them.**

 **The place was amazing. There was white marble and blue water everywhere I looked.**

 **Terraces climbed up the side of the mountain, with swimming pools on every level, connected by watersides and waterfalls and underwater tubes you could swim through. Fountains sprayed water into the air, forming impossible shapes, like flying eagles and galloping horses.**

 **Tyson loved horses, and I knew he'd love those fountains. I almost turned around to see the expression on his face before I remembered: Tyson was gone.**

" **You okay?" Annabeth asked me. "You look pale."**

" **I'm okay," I lied. "Just … let's keep walking."**

"That's a big no-no. You don't lie to quest members" Lois said

"Reason Number 2 why he's dead. Also, because he's Graecus" Octavian jeered

 **We passed all kinds of tame animals. A sea turtle napped in a stack of beach towels. A leopard stretched out asleep on the diving board. The resort guests—only young women, as far as I could see—lounged in deck chairs, drinking fruit smoothies or reading magazines while herbal gunk dried on their faces and manicurists in white uniforms did their nails.**

 **As we headed up a staircase toward what looked like the main building, I heard a woman singing. Her voice drifted through the air like a lullaby. Her words were in some language other than Ancient Greek, but just as old—Minoan, maybe, or something like that. I could understand what she sang about—moonlight in the olive groves, the colours of the sunrise. And magic. Something about magic. Her voice seemed to lift me off the steps and carry me toward her.**

 **We came into a big room where the whole front wall was windows. The back wall was covered in mirrors, so the room seemed to go on forever. There was a bunch of expensive-looking white furniture, and on a table in one corner was a large wire pet cage. The cage seemed out of place, but I didn't think about it too much, because just then I saw the lady who'd been singing … and whoa.**

 **She sat at a loom the size of a big screen TV, her hands weaving colored thread back and forth with amazing skill. The tapestry shimmered like it was three dimensional—a waterfall scene so real I could see the water moving and clouds drifting across a fabric sky.**

 **Annabeth caught her breath. "It's beautiful."**

 **The woman turned. She was even prettier than her fabric. Her long dark hair was braided with threads of gold. She had piercing green eyes and she wore a silky black dress with shapes that seemed to move in the fabric: animal shadows, black upon black, like deer running through a forest at night.**

" **You appreciate weaving, my dear?" the woman asked.**

" **Oh, yes, ma'am!" Annabeth said. "My mother is—"**

 **She stopped herself. You couldn't just go around announcing that your mom was Athena, the goddess who invented the loom. Most people would lock you in a rubber room.**

 **Our hostess just smiled. "You have good taste, my dear. I'm so glad you've come. My name is C.C."**

 **The animals in the corner cage started squealing. They must've been guinea pigs, from the sound of them.**

 **We introduced ourselves to C.C. She looked me over with a twinge of disapproval, as if I'd failed some kind of test. Immediately, I felt bad. For some reason, I really wanted to please this lady.**

" **Oh, dear," she sighed. "You do need my help."**

" **Ma'am?" I asked.**

 **C.C. called to the lady in the business suit. "Hylla, take Annabeth on a tour, will you? Show her what we have available. The clothing will need to change. And the hair, my goodness. We will do a full image consultation after I've spoken with this young gentleman."**

I gasped quite loudly or well loud enough for the legion to notice. "Praetor, what's the matter?" Hazel asked

"Not quite yet. Let me read on before I tell you all" I said

"You're not a Graecus, are you?" Octavian asked

"You dare accuse your Praetor of being Graecus?" I asked darkly, he didn't answer but if his face was anything to go by he wouldn't be saying anything for a while.

" **But …" Annabeth's voice sounded hurt. "What's wrong with my hair?"**

 **C.C. smiled benevolently. "My dear, you are lovely. Really! But you're not showing off yourself or your talents at all. So much wasted potential!"**

" **Wasted?"**

" **Well, surely you're not happy the way you are! My goodness, there's not a single person who is. But don't worry. We can improve anyone here at the spa. Hylla will show you what I mean.**

 **You, my dear, need to unlock your true self!"**

 **Annabeth's eyes glowed with longing. I'd never seen her so much at a loss for words. "But … what about Percy?"**

" **Oh, definitely," C.C. said, giving me a sad look. "Percy requires my personal attention. He needs much more work than you."**

 **Normally if somebody had told me that, I would've gotten angry, but when C.C. said it, I felt sad. I'd disappointed her. I had to figure out how to do better.**

 **The guinea pigs squealed like they were hungry.**

" **Well …" Annabeth said. "I suppose …"**

" **Right this way, dear," Hylla said. And Annabeth allowed herself to be led away into the waterfall-laced gardens of the spa.**

 **C.C. took my arm and guided me toward the mirrored wall. "You see, Percy … to unlock your potential, you'll need serious help. The first step is admitting that you're not happy the way you are."**

 **I fidgeted in the front of the mirror. I hated thinking about my appearance—like the first zit that had cropped up on my nose at the beginning of the school year, or the fact that my two front teeth weren't perfectly even, or that my hair never stayed down straight.**

 **C.C.'s voice brought all of these things to mind, as if she were passing me under a microscope. And my clothes were not cool. I knew that.**

 **Who cares? Part of me thought. But standing in front of C.C.'s mirror, it was hard to see anything good in myself.**

" **There, there," C.C. consoled. "How about we try … this."**

 **She snapped her fingers and a sky-blue curtain rolled down over the mirror. It shimmered like the fabric on her loom.**

" **What do you see?" C.C. asked.**

 **I looked at the blue cloth, not sure what she meant. "I don't—"**

 **Then it changed colors. I saw myself—a reflection, but not a reflection. Shimmering there on the cloth was a cooler version of Percy Jackson—with just the right clothes, a confident smile on my face. My teeth were straight. No zits. A perfect tan. More athletic. Maybe a couple of inches taller. It was me, without the faults.**

" **Whoa," I managed.**

" **Do you want that?" C.C. asked. "Or shall I try a different—"**

" **No," I said. "That's … that's amazing. Can you really—"**

" **I can give you a full makeover," C.C. promised.**

" **What's the catch?" I said. "I have to like … eat a special diet?"**

" **Oh, it's quite easy," C.C. said. "Plenty of fresh fruit, a mild exercise program, and of course … this."**

 **She stepped over to her wet bar and filled a glass with water. Then she ripped open a drink-mix packet and poured in some red powder. The mixture began to glow. When it faded, the drink looked just like a strawberry milk shake.**

" **One of these, substituted for a regular meal," C.C. said. "I guarantee you'll see results immediately."**

" **How is that possible?"**

 **She laughed. "Why question it? I mean, don't you want the perfect you right away?"**

 **Something nagged at the back of my mind. "Why are there no guys at this spa?"**

" **Oh, but there are," C.C. assured me. "You'll meet them quite soon. Just try the mixture. You'll see."**

 **I looked at the blue tapestry, at the reflection of me, but not me.**

" **Now, Percy," C.C. chided. "The hardest part of the makeover process is giving up control. You have to decide: do you want to trust your judgment about what you should be, or my judgment?"**

 **My throat felt dry. I heard myself say, "Your judgment."**

 **C.C. smiled and handed me the glass. I lifted it to my lips.**

 **It tasted just like it looked—like a strawberry milk shake. Almost immediately a warm feeling spread through my gut: pleasant at first, then painfully hot, searing, as if the mixture were coming to a boil inside of me.**

 **I doubled over and dropped the cup. "What have you … what's happening?"**

" **Don't worry, Percy," C.C. said. "The pain will pass. Look! As I promised. Immediate results."**

 **Something was horribly wrong.**

 **The curtain dropped away, and in the mirror I saw my hands shriveling, curling, growing long delicate claws. Fur sprouted on my face, under my shirt, in every uncomfortable place you can imagine. My teeth felt too heavy in my mouth. My clothes were getting too big, or C.C. was getting too tall—no, I was shrinking.**

"What's happening to him?" Hazel asked

"Something that is not good" I replied

 **In one awful flash, I sank into a cavern of dark cloth. I was buried in my own shirt. I tried to run but hands grabbed me—hands as big as I was. I tried to scream for help, but all that came out of my mouth was, "Reeet, reeet, reeet!"**

 **The giant hands squeezed me around the middle, lifting me into the air. I struggled and kicked with legs and arms that seemed much too stubby, and then I was staring, horrified, into the enormous face of C.C.**

" **Perfect!" her voice boomed. I squirmed in alarm, but she only tightened her grip around my furry belly. "See, Percy? You've unlocked your true self!"**

 **She held me up to the mirror, and what I saw made me scream in terror, "Reeet, reeet, reeet!" There was C.C., beautiful and smiling, holding a fluffy, bucktoothed creature with tiny claws and white and orange fur. When I twisted, so did the furry critter in the mirror. I was … I was …**

" **A guinea pig," C.C. said.**

"She turned him into a guinea pig … that's horrible" Leila said

"What were you going to say earlier, Praetor?" asked Hank

"I knew I would soon have to admit this. I didn't believe it at first but after reading that. I have met Percy Jackson before" I admitted and cue the shocked gasps to the entire mess hall as if someone was holding up cue-cards for them.

"What do you mean, Praetor" Octavian asked politely obviously trying to get on my good side again and blatantly accusing me of being graecus.

"I mean that before arriving here I lived there. That's all you need to know so don't bother asking again." I said angrily and with an 'end of conversation' tone.

" **Lovely, aren't you? Men are pigs, Percy Jackson. I used to turn them into real pigs, but they were so smelly and large and difficult to keep. Not much different than they were before, really. Guinea pigs are much more convenient! Now come, and meet the other men."**

" **Reeet!" I protested, trying to scratch her, but C.C. squeezed me so tight I almost blacked out.**

" **None of that, little one," she scolded, "or I'll feed you to the owls. Go into the cage like a good little pet. Tomorrow, if you behave, you'll be on your way. There is always a classroom in need of a new guinea pig."**

 **My mind was racing as fast as my tiny little heart. I needed to get back to my clothes, which were lying in a heap on the floor. If I could do that, I could get Riptide out of my pocket and … And what? I couldn't uncap the pen. Even if I did, I couldn't hold the sword.**

 **I squirmed helplessly as C.C. brought me over to the guinea pig cage and opened the wire door.**

" **Meet my discipline problems, Percy," she warned. "They'll never make good classroom pets, but they might teach you some manners. Most of them have been in this cage for three hundred years. If you don't want to stay with them permanently, I'd suggest you—"**

 **Annabeth's voice called: "Miss C.C.?"**

 **C.C. cursed in Ancient Greek. She plopped me into the cage and closed the door. I squealed and clawed at the bars, but it was no good. I watched as C.C. hurriedly kicked my clothes under the loom just as Annabeth came in.**

 **I almost didn't recognize her. She was wearing a sleeveless silk dress like C.C.'s, only white.**

 **Her blond hair was newly washed and combed and braided with gold. Worst of all, she was wearing makeup, which I never thought Annabeth would be caught dead in. I mean, she looked good. Really good. I probably would've been tongue-tied if I could've said anything except reet, reet, reet. But there was also something totally wrong about it. It just wasn't Annabeth.**

 **She looked around the room and frowned. "Where's Percy?"**

 **I squealed up a storm, but she didn't seem to hear me.**

 **C.C. smiled. "He's having one of our treatments, my dear. Not to worry. You look wonderful! What did you think of your tour?"**

 **Annabeth's eyes brightened. "Your library is amazing!"**

" **Yes, indeed," C.C. said, "The best knowledge of the past three millennia. Anything you want to study, anything you want to be, my dear."**

" **An architect?"**

" **Pah!" C.C. said. "You, my dear, have the makings of a sorceress. Like me."**

 **Annabeth took a step back. "A sorceress?"**

" **Yes, my dear." C.C. held up her hand. A flame appeared in her palm and danced across her fingertips. "My mother is Hecate, the goddess of magic. I know a daughter of Athena when I see one. We are not so different, you and I. We both seek knowledge. We both admire greatness. Neither of us needs to stand in the shadow of men."**

"You don't need to turn them into guinea pigs to do so though" Marcus grumbled

" **I—I don't understand."**

 **Again, I squealed my best, trying to get Annabeth's attention, but she either couldn't hear me or didn't think the noises were important. Meanwhile, the other guinea pigs were emerging from their hutch to check me out. I didn't think it was possible for guinea pigs to look mean, but these did.**

 **There were half a dozen, with dirty fur and cracked teeth and beady red eyes. They were covered with shavings and smelled like they really had been in here for three hundred years, without getting their cage cleaned.**

" **Stay with me," C.C. was telling Annabeth. "Study with me. You can join our staff, become a sorceress, learn to bend others to your will. You will become immortal!"**

"Imagine being immortal. Living forever!" Zoe gushed, "It would be so exciting"

" **But—"**

" **You are too intelligent, my dear," C.C. said. "You know better than to trust that silly camp for heroes. How many great female half-blood heroes can you name?"**

"They have a camp!" Octavian shouted, "We should be preparing for war … how do we know they aren't marching on us this very minute."

"Octavian. I am Praetor. I decide what we do. They won't be able to find this place"

" **Um, Atalanta, Amelia Earhart—"**

" **Bah! Men get all the glory." C.C. closed her fist and extinguished the magic flame. "The only way to power for women is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful women! And me, of course. The greatest of all."**

" **You … C.C. … Circe!"**

" **Yes, my dear."**

 **Annabeth backed up, and Circe laughed. "You need not worry. I mean you no harm."**

" **What have you done to Percy?"**

" **Only helped him realize his true form."**

 **Annabeth scanned the room. Finally she saw the cage, and me scratching at the bars, all the other guinea pigs crowding around me. Her eyes went wide.**

"She is so smart" Gwen gushed, "Are all Minerva's children like that?"

"There is no known children of Minerva at Camp Jupiter. I wouldn't know where to begin"

" **Forget him," Circe said. "Join me and learn the ways of sorcery."**

" **But—"**

" **Your friend will be well cared for. He'll be shipped to a wonderful new home on the mainland. The kindergartners will adore him. Meanwhile, you will be wise and powerful. You will have all you ever wanted."**

 **Annabeth was still staring at me, but she had a dreamy expression on her face. She looked the same way I had when Circe enchanted me into drinking the guinea pig milk shake. I squealed and scratched, trying to warn her to snap out of it, but I was absolutely powerless.**

" **Let me think about it," Annabeth murmured. "Just… give me a minute alone. To say good-bye."**

" **Of course, my dear," Circe cooed. "One minute. Oh … and so you have absolute privacy …"**

 **She waved her hand and iron bars slammed down over the windows. She swept out of the room and I heard the locks on the door click shut behind her.**

 **The dreamy look melted off Annabeth's face.**

 **She rushed over to my cage. "All right, which one is you?**

 **I squealed, but so did all the other guinea pigs. Annabeth looked desperate. She scanned the room and spotted the cuff of my jeans sticking out from under the loom.**

 **Yes!**

 **She rushed over and rummaged through my pockets.**

 **But instead of bringing out Riptide, she found the bottle of Hermes multivitamins and started struggling with the cap.**

 **I wanted to scream at her that this wasn't the time for taking supplements! She had to draw the sword!**

 **She popped a lemon chewable in her mouth just as the door flew open and Circe came back in, flanked by two of her business-suited attendants.**

" **Well," Circe sighed, "how fast a minute passes. What is your answer, my dear?"**

" **This," Annabeth said, and she drew her bronze knife.**

"Is she going to fight Circe?" Bobby asked, "If Annabeth is Minerva's Daughter wouldn't she be smarter than that?"

"Who knows. She must have a plan" Leila said

 **The sorceress stepped back, but her surprise quickly passed. She sneered. "Really, little girl, a knife against my magic? Is that wise?"**

 **Circe looked back at her attendants, who smiled. They raised their hands as if preparing to cast a spell.**

 **Run! I wanted to tell Annabeth, but all I could make were rodent noises. The other guinea pigs squealed in terror and scuttled around the cage. I had the urge to panic and hide, too, but I had to think of something! I couldn't stand to lose Annabeth the way I'd lost Tyson.**

" **What will Annabeth's makeover be?" Circe mused. "Something small and ill-tempered. I know … a shrew!"**

 **Blue fire coiled from her fingers curling like serpents around Annabeth.**

 **I watched, horror-struck, but nothing happened. Annabeth was still Annabeth, only angrier.**

"How did Circe's magic not work on her?" Leila asked

"Well is did say she ate one of those vitamin things" Mike said

"What are they like anti-magic or something?" Megan joked (Second Cohort)

 **She leaped forward and stuck the point of her knife against Circe's neck. "How about turning me into a panther instead? One that has her claws at your throat!"**

" **How!" Circe yelped.**

 **Annabeth held up my bottle of vitamins for the sorceress to see.**

 **Circe howled in frustration. "Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! They do nothing for you."**

"It was the vitamins. Imagine having them for battle" Marcus said in a dreamy voice

" **Turn Percy back to a human or else!" Annabeth said.**

" **I can't!"**

" **Then you asked for it."**

 **Circe's attendants stepped forward, but their mistress said, "Get back! She's immune to magic until that cursed vitamin wears off."**

 **Annabeth dragged Circe over to the guinea pig cage, knocked the top off, and poured the rest of the vitamins inside.**

" **No!" Circe screamed.**

 **I was the first to get a vitamin, but all the other guinea pigs scuttled out, too, and checked out this new food.**

 **The first nibble, and I felt all fiery inside. I gnawed at the vitamin until it stopped looking so huge, and the cage got smaller, and then suddenly, bang! The cage exploded. I was sitting on the floor, a human again—somehow back in my regular clothes, thank the gods—with six other guys who all looked disoriented, blinking and shaking wood shavings out of their hair.**

" **No!" Circe screamed. "You don't understand! Those are the worst!"**

"What is she taking about?" Lois asked

"The other people in the cage where pirates" I said, there was a bit of commotion but overwise fairly calm and no one questioned it – for once.

 **One of the men stood up—a huge guy with a long tangled pitch-black beard and teeth the same color. He wore mismatched clothes of wool and leather, knee-length boots, and a floppy felt hat. The other men were dressed more simply—in breeches and stained white shirts. All of them were barefoot.**

" **Argggh!" bellowed the big man. "What's the witch done t'me!"**

" **No!" Circe moaned.**

 **Annabeth gasped. "I recognize you! Edward Teach, son of Ares?"**

" **Aye, lass," the big man growled. "Though most call me Blackbeard! And there's the sorceress what captured us, lads. Run her through, and then I mean to find me a big bowl of celery! Arggggh!"**

"It was Blackbeard" said a shocked camper

 **Circe screamed. She and her attendants ran from the room, chased by the pirates.**

 **Annabeth sheathed her knife and glared at me.**

" **Thanks …" I faltered. "I'm really sorry—"**

 **Before I could figure out how to apologize for being such an idiot, she tackled me with a hug, then pulled away just as quickly. "I'm glad you're not a guinea pig."**

" **Me, too." I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt.**

 **She undid the golden braids in her hair.**

" **Come on, Seaweed Brain," she said. "We have to get away while Circe's distracted."**

 **We ran down the hillside through the terraces, past screaming spa workers and pirates ransacking the resort. Blackbeard's men broke the tiki torches for the luau, threw herbal wraps into the swimming pool, and kicked over tables of sauna towels.**

 **I almost felt bad letting the unruly pirates out, but I guessed they deserved something more entertaining than the exercise wheel after being cooped up in a cage for three centuries.**

" **Which ship?" Annabeth said as we reached the docks.**

 **I looked around desperately. We couldn't very well take our rowboat. We had to get off the island fast, but what else could we use? A sub? A fighter jet? I couldn't pilot any of those things. And then I saw it.**

" **There," I said.**

 **Annabeth blinked. "But—"**

" **I can make it work."**

" **How?"**

 **I couldn't explain. I just somehow knew an old sailing vessel was the best bet for me. I grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her toward the three-mast ship. Painted on its prow was the name that I would only decipher later: Queen Anne's Revenge.**

"Woah … imagine having that boat." Marcus said. Some of the romans present give him an odd look as Romans don't tend to travel by water.

" **Argggh!" Blackbeard yelled somewhere behind us. "Those scalawags are a-boarding me vessel! Get 'em, lads!"**

" **We'll never get going in time!" Annabeth yelled as we climbed aboard.**

 **I looked around at the hopeless maze of sail and ropes. The ship was in great condition for a three-hundred-year-old vessel, but it would still take a crew of fifty several hours to get underway.**

 **We didn't have several hours. I could see the pirates running down the stairs, waving tiki torches and sticks of celery.**

"I can understand the torches but why celery?" Bobby laughed

"Probably a bit of attachment to their past life" Nico said as our resident dead-guy-expert.

 **I closed my eyes and concentrated on the waves lapping against the hull, the ocean currents, the winds all around me. Suddenly, the right word appeared in my mind. "Mizzenmast!" I yelled.**

 **Annabeth looked at me like I was nuts, but in the next second, the air was filled with whistling sounds of ropes being snapped taut, canvases unfurling, and wooden pulleys creaking.**

"That sounds class!" Leila said happily

"I wonder what other powers he had" Jacob wondered

 **Annabeth ducked as a cable flew over her head and wrapped itself around the bowsprit.**

" **Percy, how …"**

 **I didn't have an answer, but I could feel the ship responding to me as if it were part of my body. I willed the sails to rise as easily as if I were flexing my arm. I willed the rudder to turn.**

 **The Queen Anne's Revenge lurched away from the dock, and by the time the pirates arrived at the water's edge, we were already underway, sailing into the Sea of Monsters.**

"The end. That was an … interesting chapter" I said

 **Just a wee rant for you. I live in the UK and where I live in the month of January we have mock exams so that we can get a feel for what our actual GCSE Exams are like. We have about 3 weeks of exams and they started on January 5** **th** **. So far, I have had 2 exams which means next week in the space of 4 days I have Maths, ICT, RE, Physics, Spanish, English and LLW! It's so not fair and I wish my school would have spaced them out more evenly. Also, they expect us to go to school next Friday after all these exams … catch yourself on. I deserve a day off and I'm going to take a day off.**


	4. Chapter IV

"Before we finish for the night I think we should read one more chapter," I paused as the romans got settled closer towards me so that they could hear my voice, Nico however, was still at the side of the crowd almost in the corner of the room looking like he wanted to be absorbed by the shadows around him.

"What's this chapter called?" Glenn asked, Fifth Cohort.

"The Fleece works its magic too well" I responded

"Does this mean they achieved their quest?" Leila asked happily

"Must be" I replied

"I wonder what they're using it for" wondered Aaron, a member of the First Cohort and Son of Apollo.

"Quiet! Now let's begin" I said and started to read.

 **That afternoon was one of the happiest I'd ever spent at camp, which maybe goes to show, you never know when your world is about to be rocked to pieces. Grover announced that he'd be able to spend the rest of the summer with us before resuming his quest for Pan.**

"Who is Pan?" asked Zach

"I think he's the graecus counter-part for Faunus" I guessed

 **His bosses at the Council of Cloven Elders were so impressed that he hadn't gotten himself killed and had cleared the way for future searchers, that they granted him a two-month fur-lough and a new set of reed pipes. The only bad news: Grover insisted on playing those pipes all afternoon long, and his musical skills hadn't improved much.**

 **He played "YMCA," and the strawberry plants started going crazy, wrapping around our feet like they were trying to strangle us. I guess I couldn't blame them.**

"Stop torturing the plants like that!" Leila sympathized. With all her fighting skill it almost made you forget she was a daughter of Ceres.

 **Grover told me he could dissolve the empathy link between us, now that we were face to face, but I told him I'd just as soon keep it if that was okay with him. He put down his reed pipes and stared at me.**

 **"But, if I get in trouble again, you'll be in danger, Percy! You could die!"**

 **"If you get in trouble again, I want to know about it. And I'll come help you again, G-man. I wouldn't have it any other way."**

"He's so loyal." Gwen gushed, "I love it"

 **In the end he agreed not to break the link. He went back to playing "YMCA" for the strawberry plants. I didn't need an empathy link with the plants to know how they felt about it. Later on during archery class, Chiron pulled me aside and told me he'd fixed my problems with Meriwether Prep. The school no longer blamed me for destroying their gym-nasium.**

"Well that's one way to leave school" Bobby laughed

"It is also the wrong way to leave school" Zoe said

 **The police were no longer looking for me.**

 **"How did you manage that?" I asked.**

 **Chiron's eyes twinkled. "I merely suggested that the mortals had seen something different on that day—a furnace explosion that was not your fault."**

 **"You just said that and they bought it?"**

 **"I manipulated the Mist. Some day, when you're ready, I'll show how it's done."**

 **"You mean, I can go back to Meriwether next year?"**

 **Chiron raised his eyebrows. "Oh, no, they've still expelled you. Your headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, said you had—how did he put it?—un-groovy karma that disrupted the school's educational aura. But you're not in any legal trouble, which was a relief to your mother. Oh, and speaking of your mother ..." He unclipped his cell phone from his quiver and handed it to me. "It's high time you called her."**

 **The worst part was the beginning—the "Percy-Jackson-what-were-you-thinking-do-you-have-any-idea-how-worried-I-was-sneaking-off-to-camp-without-permission-going-on-dangerous-quests-and-scaring-me-half-to-death" part.**

 **But finally she paused to catch her breath. "Oh, I'm just glad you're safe!"**

"She sounds like a wonderful mum" Lois said

"Wish my mum cared enough about me to be worried" Mike said

 **That's the great thing about my mom. She's no good at staying angry. She tries, but it just isn't in her nature.**

 **"I'm sorry, Mom," I told her. "I won't scare you again."**

 **"Don't promise me that, Percy. You know very well it will only get worse." She tried to sound casual about it, but I could tell she was pretty shaken up. I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I knew she was right. Being a halfblood, I would always be doing things that scared her. And as I got older, the dangers would just get greater.**

 **"I could come home for a while," I offered.**

 **"No, no. Stay at camp. Train. Do what you need to do. But you will come home for the next school year?"**

 **"Yeah, of course. Uh, if there's any school that will take me."**

 **"Oh, we'll find something, dear," my mother sighed. "Some place where they don't know us yet."**

 **As for Tyson, the campers treated him like a hero. I would've been happy to have him as my cabin mate forever, but that evening, as we were sitting on a sand dune overlooking the Long Island Sound, he made an announcement that completely took me by surprise.**

"I still don't know if he's a faun or a demigod yet" Bobby said

"Maybe they'll tell us later" I said hopefully because I too wanted to know what Tyson was.

 **"Dream came from Daddy last night," he said. "He wants me to visit."**

 **I wondered if he was kidding, but Tyson really didn't know how to kid. "Poseidon sent you a dream message?"**

"Do you think the gods actually contact them?" Marcus asked sadly as his dad had never contacted him except for claiming him.

 **Tyson nodded. "Wants me to go underwater for the rest of the summer. Learn to work at Cyclopes' forges. He called it an inter—an intern—"**

"Is Tyson a cyclopes?" Gwen asked

"Must be or he wouldn't be working at the Cyclopes Forges, duh" Hank said as if speaking to a five-year-old.

 **"An internship?"**

 **"Yes." I let that sink in. I'll admit, I felt a little jealous. Poseidon had never invited me underwater. But then I thought, Tyson was going? Just like that?**

 **"When would you leave?" I asked.**

 **"Now."**

 **"Now. Like ... now now?"**

 **"Now."**

 **I stared out at the waves in the Long Island Sound. The water was glistening red in the sunset.**

 **"I'm happy for you, big guy," I managed. "Seriously."**

 **"Hard to leave my new brother," he said with a tremble in his voice. "But I want to make things. Weapons for the camp. You will need them."**

 **Unfortunately, I knew he was right. The Fleece hadn't solved all the camp's problems. Luke was still out there, gathering an army aboard the Princess Andromeda. Kronos was still reforming in his golden coffin. Eventually, we would have to fight them.**

 **"You'll make the best weapons ever," I told Tyson. I held up my watch proudly. "I bet they'll tell good time, too."**

 **Tyson sniffled. "Brothers help each other."**

 **"You're my brother," I said. "No doubt about it."**

 **He patted me on the back so hard he almost knocked me down the sand dune. Then he wiped a tear from his cheek and stood to go. "Use the shield well."**

 **"I will, big guy."**

 **"Save your life some day."**

 **The way he said it, so matter-of-fact, I wondered if that Cyclops eye of his could see into the future. He headed down to the beach and whistled. Rainbow, the hippocampus, burst out of the waves. I watched the two of them ride off together into the realm of Poseidon. Once they were gone, I looked down at my new wristwatch. I pressed the button and the shield spiraled out to full size.**

"That's class!" Hazel said amazed

"It's just like Jason's Ivlivis" I said

 **Hammered into the bronze were pictures in Ancient Greek style, scenes from our adventures this summer. There was Annabeth slaying a Laistrygonian dodgeball player, me fighting the bronze bulls on Half-Blood Hill, Tyson riding Rainbow toward the Princess Andromeda, the CSS Birmingham blasting its cannons at Charybdis.**

 **I ran my hand across a picture of Tyson, battling the Hydra as he held aloft a box of Monster Donuts. I couldn't help feeling sad. I knew Tyson would have an awesome time under the ocean. But I'd miss everything about him—his fascination with horses, the way he could fix chariots or crumple metal with his bare hands, or tie bad guys into knots. I'd even miss him snoring like an earth-quake in the next bunk all night.**

 **"Hey, Percy." I turned. Annabeth and Grover were standing at the top of the sand dune. I guess maybe I had some sand in my eyes, because I was blinking a lot.**

 **"Tyson ..." I told them. "He had to ..."**

 **"We know," Annabeth said softly. "Chiron told us."**

 **"Cyclopes forges." Grover shuddered. "I hear the cafeteria food there is terrible! Like, no enchiladas at all."**

 **Annabeth held out her hand. "Come on, Seaweed Brain. Time for dinner." We walked back toward the dining pavilion together, just the three of us, like old times.**

 **A storm raged that night, but it parted around Camp Half-Blood as storms usually did. Lightning flashed against the horizon, waves pounded the shore, but not a drop fell in our valley. We were protected again, thanks to the Fleece, sealed inside our magical borders.**

 **Still, my dreams were restless. I heard Kronos taunting me from the depths of Tartarus: Polyphemus sits blindly in his cave, young hero, believing he has won a great victory. Are you any less deluded? The titan's cold laughter filled the darkness. Then my dream changed. I was following Tyson to the bottom of the sea, into the court of Poseidon.**

 **It was a radiant hall filled with blue light, the floor cobbled with pearls. And there, on a throne of coral, sat my father, dressed like a simple fisherman in khaki shorts and a sunbleached T-shirt.**

"Honestly is that what Neptune wears?" Jacob asked, "I thought he's be dressed in more serious looking clothes"

"Maybe he only wears serious clothes to Olympus" Leila said

 **I looked up into his tan weathered face, his deep green eyes, and he spoke two words: Brace yourself.**

 **I woke with a start.**

 **There was a banging on the door. Grover flew inside without waiting for permission. "Percy!" he stammered. "Annabeth ... on the hill ... she ..." The look in his eyes told me something was terribly wrong.**

"What's wrong with Annabeth?" Zoe asked

"Awe, I actually liked her" Gwen said dejectedly

"Graecus," Octavian muttered, "Its seems like you romans are turning into a bunch of wimpy graecus"

 **Annabeth had been on guard duty that night, protecting the Fleece. If something had happened— I ripped off the covers, my blood like ice water in my veins. I threw on some clothes while Grover tried to make a complete sentence, but he was too stunned, too out of breath. "She's lying there ... just lying there ..."**

 **I ran outside and raced across the central yard, Grover right behind me. Dawn was just breaking, but the whole camp seemed to be stirring. Word was spreading. Something huge had happened. A few campers were already making their way toward the hill, satyrs and nymphs and heroes in a weird mix of armor and pajamas.**

 **I heard the clop of horse hooves, and Chiron galloped up behind us, looking grim. "Is it true?" he asked Grover. Grover could only nod, his expression dazed.**

 **I tried to ask what was going on, but Chiron grabbed me by the arm and effortlessly lifted me onto his back. Together we thundered up Half-Blood Hill, where a small crowd had started to gather.**

 **I expected to see the Fleece missing from the pine tree, but it was still there, glittering in the first light of dawn. The storm had broken and the sky was blood-red.**

 **"Curse the titan lord," Chiron said. "He's tricked us again, given himself another chance to control the prophecy."**

"What is he talking about?" Hank questioned

"For once I have no idea" I replied

 **"What do you mean?" I asked.**

 **"The Fleece," he said. "The Fleece did its work too well."**

 **We galloped forward, everyone moving out of our way. There at the base of the tree, a girl was lying unconscious. Another girl in Greek armor was kneeling next to her. Blood roared in my ears. I couldn't think straight. Annabeth had been attacked? But why was the Fleece still there?**

"If Annabeth was attacked it was obviously so that they could get the fleece, right?" Glenn asked, "So why wasn't the fleece missing"

 **The tree itself looked perfectly fine, whole and healthy, suffused with the essence of the Golden Fleece.**

 **"It healed the tree," Chiron said, his voice ragged. "And poison was not the only thing it purged." Then I realized Annabeth wasn't the one lying on the ground. She was the one in armor, kneeling next to the unconscious girl. When Annabeth saw us, she ran to Chiron.**

"Thank goodness Annabeth is alright." Gwen said happily

 **"It... she ...just suddenly there ..."**

 **Her eyes were streaming with tears, but I still didn't understand. I was too freaked out to make sense of it all. I leaped off Chiron's back and ran toward the unconscious girl. Chiron said: "Percy, wait!" I knelt by her side. She had short black hair and freck-les across her nose. She was built like a long-distance runner, lithe and strong, and she wore clothes that were somewhere between punk and Goth—a black T-shirt, black tattered jeans, and a leather jacket with buttons from a bunch of bands I'd never heard of.**

 **She wasn't a camper. I didn't recognize her from any of the cabins. And yet I had the strangest feeling I'd seen her before...**

'Who is she?' You could tell by the look on everyone's face that they were wondering this too.

 **"It's true," Grover said, panting from his run up the hill. "I can't believe ..."**

 **Nobody else came close to the girl.**

 **I put my hand on her forehead. Her skin was cold, but my fingertips tingled as if they were burning. "She needs nectar and ambrosia," I said. She was clearly a half-blood, whether she was a camper or not. I could sense that just from one touch. I didn't understand why everyone was acting so scared.**

 **I took her by the shoulders and lifted her into sitting position, resting her head on my shoulder. "Come on!" I yelled to the others. "What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House."**

 **No one moved, not even Chiron. They were all too stunned. Then the girl took a shaky breath. She coughed and opened her eyes. Her irises were startlingly blue—electric blue.**

"Just like Jason's eyes" Gwen said in amazement. It was true though, I thought Jason was the only person I'd ever know with electric blue eyes.

 **The girl stared at me in bewilderment, shivering and wild-eyed. "Who—"**

 **"I'm Percy," I said. "You're safe now."**

 **"Strangest dream ..."**

 **"It's okay."**

 **"Dying."**

 **"No," I assured her. "You're okay. What's your name?"**

 **That's when I knew. Even before she said it. The girl's blue eyes stared into mine, and I understood what the Golden Fleece quest had been about. The poisoning of the tree. Everything. Kronos had done it to bring another chess piece into play—another chance to control the prophecy. Even Chiron, Annabeth, and Grover, who should've been celebrating this moment, were too shocked, thinking about what it might mean for the future. And I was holding someone who was destined to be my best friend, or possibly my worst enemy.**

 **"I am Thalia," the girl said. "Daughter of Zeus."**

"Why is she such a big deal? I mean she's just like Jason in a way. Isn't she?" Leila asked confused

"Does that make them half-siblings?" Bobby asked

"I'm not sure" I said still a bit confused as to what just happened. I mean was that girl just revived by a fleece? "Anyway, that's the end of that chapter. I think we should get a good night sleep and Octavian, please do read the auguries tomorrow morning in case the gods want to tell us more. Romans dismissed."


	5. Chapter V

It was a lovely day. Sun had been shining but was now create an array of oranges, yellows and blues across the sky as it set beyond the horizon. Everyone had been abuzz with conversation about the previous night and what would be read later, however, as of right now we were finishing dinner.

"Octavian, what is too be made of the auguries?" I enquired

"They said expect a guest" He replied, "If they dare send a graecus…" He left the threat hanging however a slight thunder followed it.

"How will they find us? How will they get in?" a worried member of the fourth cohort said

"If the gods have willed it, they will get in no bother" I said a bit angry that unknown people could be roaming our camp soon.

"But what if they're graecus?" Marcus asked

"What if they attack us?"

"Then we attack them" I responded which was applauded, the way to get to a romans heart – just mention fighting.

I was about to start reading when in the distance, I heard a clear, piercing sound; the call of a hunting horn and judging by the astounded look on everyone's face they did too.

"What was that?" Dakota asked his mouth covered in red kool aid.

"It's the call for the hunters of Diana, isn't it?" Gwen asked

"Yes. These must be our guests." I said. When they arrived into the mess hall they were dressed in silvery parkas and jeans, all armed with bows. "Hunters of Diana welcome to-" I was cut off by the girl at the front of the group. There were around 17 of them in total.

"We're not hunters of Diana!" The girl in front said, "We are the Hunters of Artemis" The mess hall gasped, it made everyone believe the graecus demigods existed. "I am Thalia, Lieutenant of Artemis"

"Hey we just read about how you use to be a tree" Bobby shouted from the front of the large mass of Romans.

"Okay, where are we? My lady spoke to me in a dream saying to come to here" Thalia said confused

"You are at Camp Jupiter. Home for Demigod by Roman descent." I said, "I am Praetor Reyna, this is our oracle Octavian. Usually we have two Praetor but it seems our other Praetor has gone missing"

"Hmm … really the same thing happened at the Graecus camp, I suppose you know about that too?" She said

"Sort of."

"Yes, well my hunters and I have been searching for Percy, he went missing almost a week ago," She said while her eyes wondered around the room though they seemed to stop on someone and stayed there, a malicious glint in her eyes while she muttered angrily under her breath. "Oi! Death Breath! What are you doing here? You said you were looking for Percy" She shouted at Nico.

Nico started to shuffle through the crowd towards the hunters. "Hey Thalia…" He said awkwardly.

"You are a graecus! Don't trust him! He's spying for the Graecus so they can attack" Octavian sneered

"Quiet Octavian" I said in hope that we could hear their conversation, "Nico you said Percy was dead" I told him before asking if it was true

"Percy is alive that much I can tell, I would have felt it if he died" Nico said, "but I don't know where he is"

"First of all why are you here?" Thalia asked, "We built you a cabin at Camp Half-Blood"

"I'm not accepted there, not that I am here either. Why do think I travel around a lot." He defended himself.

"We'll talk about this later. You'll have to go back to our camp. You are a son of Hades not his roman form"

"But I can't leave Hazel, dad said to bring her here"

"Let's just read this book. Hunters you are welcome to join us." I said and they sat down around me staying separate from the campers however, Thalia seemed to make sure Nico stayed beside her.

"This chapter is called 'Thalia torches New England'"

"Not this one!" Thalia and Nico groaned though you could tell it wasn't for the same reason.

 **Artemis**

"You've met Artemis?" Leila said

"She hunts with us" Thalia said smugly

 **assured us that dawn was coming, but you could've fooled me. It was colder and darker and snowier than ever. Up on the hill, Westover Hall's windows were completely lightless. I wondered if the teachers had even noticed the di Angelos and Dr. Thorn were missing yet.**

"Why were you at School?" Bobby asked, "Why is di Angelos is plural from?"

"Because he had a sister" Thalia answered for him

 **I didn't want to be around when they did. With my luck, the only name Mrs. Gottschalk would remember was "Percy Jackson," and then I'd be the subject of a nationwide manhunt… again.**

 **The Hunters broke camp as quickly as they'd set it up. I stood shivering in the snow (unlike the Hunters, who didn't seem to feel at all uncomfortable), and Artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something. Bianca sat off to one side, talking with Nico. I could tell from his gloomy face that she was explaining her decision to join the Hunt. I couldn't help thinking how selfish it was of her, abandoning her brother like that.**

 **Thalia and Grover came up and huddled around me, anxious to hear what had happened in my audience with the goddess.**

 **When I told them, Grover turned pale. "The last time the Hunters visited camp, it didn't go well."**

"Do you visit camp often?" Gwen asked

"We used to never visit but now we try to visit every few months" Thalia answered

"How come we don't get visited?"

"Because we are the greek hunters there are roman hunters of Diana" Phoebe, a hunter, said. ****

 **"How'd they even show up here?" I wondered. "I mean, they just appeared out of nowhere."**

 **"And Bianca joined them," Thalia said, disgusted. "It's all Zoe's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"**

"Who's Bianca and Zoe?" Lois questioned

"Bianca was Nico's older sister and Zoe was the old Lieutenant" Thalia answered with ease. ****

 **"Who can blame her?" Grover said. "Eternity with Artemis?" He heaved a big sigh.**

 **Thalia rolled her eyes. "You satyrs. You're all in love with Artemis. Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"**

 **"But she's so… into nature," Grover swooned.**

 **"You're nuts," said Thalia.**

 **"Nuts and berries," Grover said dreamily. "Yeah."**

Everyone laughed at Grover and his obession ****

 **Finally the sky began to lighten. Artemis muttered, "About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."**

"Who are they waiting for?" Marcus asked

"I'm not sure" ****

 **"You're, um, waiting for sunrise?" I asked.**

 **"For my brother. Yes."**

"Apollo isn't that" Glenn asked and Thalia nodded. The Children of Apollo looked really excited, he was still their dad even if he was in his greek form. ****

 **I didn't want to be rude. I mean, I knew the legends about Apollo—or sometimes Helios—driving a big sun chariot across the sky. But I also knew that the sun was really a star about a zillion miles away. I'd gotten used to some of the Greek myths being true, but still… I didn't see how Apollo could drive the sun.**

 **"It's not exactly as you think," Artemis said, like she was reading my mind.**

 **"Oh, okay." I started to relax. "So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"**

 **There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon. A blast of warmth.**

 **"Don't look," Artemis advised. "Not until he parks."**

"What does she mean by parks" Aiden, a child of Apollo asked

"You'll see" Naomi said ****

 **Parks?**

 **I averted my eyes, and saw that the other kids were doing the same. The light and warmth intensified until my winter coat felt like it was melting off of me. Then suddenly the light died.**

 **I looked. And I couldn't believe it. It was my car.**

"His car … Percy was able to drive then?" Thalia laughed

 **Well, the car I wanted, anyway. A red convertible Maserati Spyder. It was so awesome it glowed. Then I realized it was glowing because the metal was hot. The snow had melted around the Maserati in a perfect circle, which explained why I was now standing on green grass and my shoes were wet.**

 **The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, and for a second, I had the uneasy feeling it was Luke, my old enemy. This guy had the same sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. But it wasn't Luke. This guy was taller, with no scar on his face like Luke's. His smile was brighter and more playful. (Luke didn't do much more than scowl and sneer these days.) The Maserati driver wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt.**

All the children of Apollo were amazed at the description of the graecus version of their father ****

 **"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."**

 **"He's the sun god," I said.**

"He's a genius sometimes" Bobby laughed along with Marcus and Mike

"He's so blatantly stupid it's funny" Nico said ****

 **"That's not what I meant."**

 **"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter he could've blinded us without the sun car. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"**

 **Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."**

 **"Hey, I was born first."**

 **"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"**

"But one twin has to be born first … so" Leila said trailing off  
 **  
"So what's up?" he interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"**

"We actually have a much better aim than the Apollo campers at Camp Half Blood" Celyn boasted

"But you have Artemis' blessing they don't have Apollo's blessing" Nico reasoned ****

 **Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."**

 **"Sure, sis!" Then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. "I feel a haiku coming on."**

"One thing you should know about Apollo. He may be god of poetry but it is awful!" Thalia moaned obviously having been at the receiving end of the poems ****

 **The Hunters all groaned. Apparently they'd met Apollo before.**

 **He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.**

 **"Green grass breaks through snow.**

 **Artemis pleads for my help.**

 **I am so cool."**

 **He grinned at us, waiting for applause.**

 **"That last line was only four syllables," Artemis said.**

 **Apollo frowned. "Was it?"**

 **"Yes. What about I am so big-headed?"**

 **"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmm." He started muttering to himself.**

 **Zoe Nightshade turned to us. "Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta—"**

 **"I've got it!" Apollo announced. "I am so awesome. That's five syllables!" He bowed, looking very pleased with himself.**

 **"And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."**

 **"These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to us. "Some of Chiron's campers."**

 **"No problem!" Apollo checked us out. "Let's see… Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."**

 **Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."**

 **"Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"**

"So are you like half-siblings with all the gods that were born via Zeus" Zoe asked

"Hmm. I've never thought about that but I suppose I am" She answered

"Does that mean Jason is related to them as well" Hazel asked but at the word Jason, Thalia turned so fast I'm surprised she didn't get whiplash.

"Jason who" She asked

"Our Praetor. Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter" I replied slightly confused as to why she wanted to know this. She gasped but muttering things to Nico and her hunters who also shared a shocked look.

 **"Brother," Artemis said. "You should get going."**

 **"Oh, right." Then he looked at me, and his eyes narrowed. "Percy Jackson?"**

 **"Yeah. I mean… yes, sir."**

 **It seemed weird calling a teenager "sir," but I'd learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then they blew stuff up.**

 **Apollo studied me, but he didn't say anything, which I found a little creepy.**

 **"Well!" he said at last. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."**

 **I looked at the Maserati, which would seat two people max. There were about twenty of us.**

 **"Cool car," Nico said.**

 **"Thanks, kid," Apollo said.**

 **"But how will we all fit?"**

 **"Oh." Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose…"**

 **He took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button. Chirp, chirp.**

 **For a moment, the car glowed brightly again. When the glare died, the Maserati had been replaced by one of those Turtle Top shuttle buses like we used for school basketball games.**

"That's awesome!" Bobby said, "Do think I could get one of those?" No one answered him. ****

 **"Right," he said. "Everybody in."**

 **Zoe ordered the Hunters to start loading. She picked up her camping pack, and Apollo said, "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."**

 **Zoe recoiled. Her eyes flashed murderously.**

 **"Brother," Artemis chided. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."**

"Do the hunters not like Apollo?" Clara a daughter of Apollo asked

"It's not that we don't like him, it's the fact that he flirts with us even though we've sworn off of men" Naomi replied.

"Oh right" Clara said ****

 **Apollo spread his hands. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"**

 **"Hunting," Artemis said. "It's none of your business."**

 **"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."**

 **Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around!"**

 **"No, no! I never mess around."**

 **Artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at us. "I will see you by winter solstice. Zoe, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."**

 **Zoe straightened. "Yes, my lady."**

 **Artemis knelt and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."**

 **She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows.**

 **Apollo turned and grinned, jangling the car keys on his finger. "So," he said. "Who wants to drive?"**

 **The Hunters piled into the van. They all crammed into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from Apollo and the rest of us highly infectious males, Bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with us, which seemed cold to me, but Nico didn't seem to mind.**

"I did mind … I just played it like it didn't bother me" He said quietly ****

 **"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"**

 **"Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions."**

"Did we really?" Chloe asked (Third Cohort)

"Yep" I said

" **My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."**

 **"But how does it work?" Nico asked. "I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"**

 **Apollo chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "That rumor probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting. They've got a lot riding on the sun… er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"**

"So Apollo literally drives the sun" Jacob said

"That sounds awesome" Frank said

"That's what I thought when he told me but I didn't really understood what he was saying" Nico said, it seemed like the more we read the more Nico seemed to come out of his shell.

 **Nico shook his head. "No."**

 **"Well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."**

 **"Can I drive?"**

 **"No. Too young."**

 **"Oo! Oo!" Grover raised his hand.**

 **"Mm, no," Apollo said. "Too furry." He looked past me and focused on Thalia.**

"No need to discriminate against Satyrs" Bobby laughed

"Why you lot do it every day with the fauns here" Nico retaliated which seemed to make Bobby stop laughing as well as everyone else. ****

 **"Daughter of Zeus!" he said. "Lord of the sky. Perfect."**

 **"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."**

 **"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"**

 **Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."**

 **It was sad, but true. She'd been turned into a tree when she was twelve, but that had been seven years ago. So she should be nineteen, if you went by years. But she still felt like she was twelve, and if you looked at her, she seemed somewhere in between. The best Chiron could figure, she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly.**

 **Apollo tapped his finger to his lips. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."**

 **"How do you know that?"**

 **"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."**

 **"That's my birthday! December twenty-second."**

"That means it's going to be your birthday soon!" Phoebe said

"What age will you be?" Hank asked

"I'm immortal" Thalia replied, "I don't age"

"Lucky" He muttered

"Graecus" Octavian jeered still a bit angry at them for bursting into his camp unannounced. ****

 **"Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"**

 **Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"**

 **"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."**

 **"That's not what I was going to say."**

 **"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."**

"It was awful" Thalia moaned

"How bad?" But Thalia just shook her head. ****

 **Apollo laughed good-naturedly. The rest of us didn't join him.**

 **Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was absolutely not going to take "no" for an answer. He hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the top of the windshield. I had to read it backward (which, for a dyslexic, really isn't that different than reading forward). I was pretty sure it said WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER.**

 **"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"**

 **I'll admit I was jealous. I couldn't wait to start driving. A couple of times that fall, my mom had taken me out to Montauk when the beach road was empty, and she'd let me try out her Mazda. I mean, yeah, that was a Japanese compact, and this was the sun chariot, but how different could it be?**

"How different? Such a Kelp Head" muttered Thalia, "but really different and scary" ****

 **"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."**

"You didn't really understand the slow part did you?" Nico joked

"I will shoot you with an arrow" ****

 **Thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She looked like she was going to be sick.**

 **"What's wrong?" I asked her.**

 **"Nothing," she said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong."**

 **She pulled back on the wheel. It tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast I fell back and crashed against something soft.**

"Hey, I just realised Annabeth isn't there" Leila said

"Where was she? She was in the previous chapters we've read."

"What happened to her?" Everyone was asking questions until it was Octavian who spoke up.

"Look at you all! Worrying over a Graecus! We are Romans! We defeated the Graecus!" He roared, "Act like Romans!" It was quiet after that. ****

 **"Ow" Grover said.**

 **"Sorry."**

 **"Slower!" Apollo said.**

 **"Sorry!" Thalia said. "I've got it under control!"**

 **I managed to get to my feet. Looking out the window, I saw a smoking ring of trees from the clearing where we'd taken off.**

 **"Thalia," I said, "lighten up on the accelerator."**

 **"I've got it, Percy," she said, gritting her teeth. But she kept it floored.**

 **"Loosen up," I told her.**

 **"I'm loose!" Thalia said. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.**

"You weren't loose" Nico muttered to her and you could tell by her face and actions that she was itching to shoot an arrow at him. ****

 **"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left."**

 **Thalia jerked the wheel and again threw me into Grover, who yelped.**

 **"The other left," Apollo suggested.**

 **I made the mistake of looking out the window again. We were at airplane height now—so high the sky was starting to look black.**

 **"Ah…" Apollo said, and I got the feeling he was forcing himself to sound calm. "A little lower, sweetheart. Cape Cod is freezing over."**

 **Thalia tilted the wheel. Her face was chalk white, her forehead beaded with sweat. Something was definitely wrong. I'd never seen her like this.**

 **The bus pitched down and somebody screamed. Maybe it was me. Now we were heading straight toward the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to our right. And it was getting hot in the bus.**

"I think is may be a good thing that you are forever too young to get your license" Joe said cautiously, he was a son of mercury and member of the First Cohort.

"I will also shoot an arrow at you" Thalia said murderously ****

**Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he started climbing up the rows of seats.**

 **"Take the wheel!" Grover begged him.**

 **"No worries," Apollo said. He looked plenty worried. "She just has to learn to—WHOA!"**

 **I saw what he was seeing. Down below us was a little snow-covered New England town. At least, it used to be snow-covered. As I watched, the snow melted off the trees and the roofs and the lawns. The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to smolder. Little plumes of smoke, like birthday candles, were popping up all over the town. Trees and rooftops were catching fire.**

 **"Pull up!" I yelled.**

 **There was a wild light in Thalia's eyes. She yanked back on the wheel, and I held on this time. As we zoomed up, I could see through the back window that the fires in the town were being snuffed out by the sudden blast of cold.**

 **"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."**

"If I wasn't about to crash I would probably laugh" Thalia said and Nico nodded in agreement ****

 **Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood:**

"Ooooh! We're going to hear about Camp Half Blood" Leila said

"We haven't heard much about it, have we?" Gwen said agreeing with Leila.

 **the valley, the woods, the beach. I could see the dining pavilion and cabins and the amphitheater.**

 **"I'm under control," Thalia muttered. "I'm under control."**

 **We were only a few hundred yards away now.**

 **"Brake," Apollo said.**

 **"I can do this."**

 **"BRAKE!"**

 **Thalia slammed her foot on the brake, and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five-degree angle, slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake with a huge FLOOOOOOSH! Steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.**

 **The bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.**

 **"Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"**

"Oh … we didn't hear much did we?" Gwen said sadly

"I'm sure Thalia would be delighted to tell you all about Camp" Nico said

"You will too" Thalia said pulling his collar as he was about to do a runner.

"What's it like?" Bobby asked

"It's a summer camp. Definitely not like Camp Jupiter … more relaxed" Nico answered

"Do you have Praetors?" Jim, Fifth Cohort, asked

"No Praetors are roman. We have a centaur named Chiron and Mr D." Thalia said

"Chiron as in the trainer of heroes?" I asked and they nodded as their answer.

"Obviously Chiron is training them so that they can invade us" Octavian argued

"Moving on, who is 'Mr D.'?" I asked again.

"Dionysus, God of Wine. Zeus is punishing him for running off with a Nymph." Nico said before adding, "Dionysus would be Bacchus"

"Wait … my dad is like the leader of your camp?" Dakota asked still slightly drunk on kool aid, they nodded and then Dakota nodded.

"Any more questions." No one answered

"Alright. That's enough for tonight. Romans dismissed, hunters is their anywhere in particular you would like to stay?" I asked

"We'll set up camp in the Field of Mars" Thalia said before walking off with her hunters. Nico got up to leave too but was quickly caught by Thalia who dragged him with her to the Field. "We still have to talk." **  
**


End file.
